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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

v.

MICHAEL BEBERMAN,

Defendant.

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Criminal No.: 00 CR. 603 (AGS)

Filed: June 1, 2000

Violations:

15 U.S.C. § 126 U.S.C. § 7201

INFORMATION

COUNT ONE -- SHERMAN ACT CONSPIRACY
(15 U.S.C. § 1)

The United States of America, acting through its attorneys, charges:

1. Michael Beberman ("Beberman") is hereby made a defendant on
the charge stated below.

I. THE RELEVANT PARTIES AND ENTITIES

During the period covered by this Count:

2. Beberman resided in Queens, New York until November 1997, and in
Melville, New York thereafter. From May 1995, Beberman was employed as a
salesperson at a company ("CC-1") that was a co-conspirator. CC-1 was a New
York State corporation with principal offices in Ozone Park, New York. CC-1 sold
food and related items.

3. The Board of Education of the City of New York ("NYCBOE") was the
entity responsible for operating New York City's public school system, the largest
in the United States. Its annual budgets, which approached $10 billion, were
funded by the federal, state, and city governments. It serviced a student
population of nearly 1.1 million and operated more than 1,500 facilities. It served
approximately 640,000 lunches and 150,000 breakfasts every school day, the
majority of which were subsidized by various government programs, primarily
those programs established pursuant to the National School Lunch Act of 1946
and administered by the United States Department of Agriculture.

4. The NYCBOE solicited bids from, and awarded contracts to, vendors
of food on a regular basis. The primary food contracts awarded by the NYCBOE
were requirements contracts that obligated the vendors to supply and deliver
food at the stated prices for the contract period. Both public and non-public
schools received food pursuant to these contracts. Individual schools placed
orders as needed, usually once or twice a week.

5. The NYCBOE sought separate bids, and awarded separate
contracts, for the supply of a number of categories of food, including frozen
food, produce, and groceries. Each of these bids and contracts was divided
into parts, usually geographically by borough. The company bidding the lowest
price for a particular part of a contract usually received an award for that part
of the contract. The term of most of these contracts varied from three to six
months. Toward the expiration of the contract period, the NYCBOE again
solicited bids for the supply of food.

6. The NYCBOE required bidders to certify, under penalty of perjury,
that, among other things, the prices in their bids had been arrived at
independently without collusion, consultation, communication, or agreement for
the purpose of restricting competition as to any matter relating to such prices,
with any other bidder or with any competitor.

7. The Department of Citywide Administrative Services of the City of
New York ("DCAS") was the agency that provided support to various city entities
that served the public, including the entities responsible for overseeing hospitals,
jails, homeless shelters, and other facilities. DCAS became responsible for
providing this support in July 1996 when it replaced the New York City
Department of General Services. Through its Division of Municipal Supply
Services, DCAS conducted competitive bidding for the supply of necessary
items, including food, on behalf of several New York City entities, including the
Health and Hospitals Corporation ("HHC"), the Department of Juvenile Justice
("DJJ"), the Department of Correction ("DOC"), the Department of Homeless
Services ("DHS"), the Human Resources Administration ("HRA"), and the
Administration for Children's Services ("ACS").

8. The Newark Public Schools operated the public school system in
Newark, New Jersey. That system, the largest in New Jersey, serviced
approximately 44,000 students and operated more than 80 facilities. The
Newark Public Schools served more than 7 million meals each year, and spent
about $7 million annually on food and milk. The Newark Public Schools' annual
budgets were funded by the federal, state, and city governments, including
funding pursuant to the National School Lunch Act of 1946. The Newark Public
Schools solicited bids from, and awarded contracts to, vendors of food on a
regular basis. The primary food contracts awarded by the Newark Public
Schools were requirements contracts that obligated the vendors to supply and
deliver food at the stated prices for the contract period.

9. The Nassau County Department of General Services was the
agency responsible for managing procurement on behalf of the agencies of
Nassau County, New York, including the agency that administered the Nassau
County correctional facilities.

10. Whenever in this Count reference is made to any act, deed, or
transaction of any corporation, such allegation shall be deemed to mean that
the corporation engaged in such act, deed, or transaction by or through its
officers, directors, agents, employees, or other representatives while they were
actively engaged in the management, direction, control, or transaction of its
business or affairs.

11. Various persons and firms, not made defendants herein,
participated as co-conspirators in the offense charged herein and performed
acts and made statements in furtherance thereof. They include Selwyn Lempert
("Lempert"), an employee of a company located in the Bronx that sold food and
related items.

II. TRADE AND COMMERCE

12. During the period covered by this Count, CC-1 purchased
substantial quantities of food for resale to the NYCBOE, DCAS, the Newark Public
Schools, and the Nassau County Department of General Services from suppliers
located throughout the United States, or from wholesalers who obtained their
goods from suppliers located throughout the United States.

13. From approximately 1995 until approximately April 1999, as a result
of the conspiracy charged herein, the Newark Public Schools purchased
approximately $900,000 of food from CC-1, while the entities serviced by DCAS
purchased approximately $1 million of food from CC-1, and the Nassau County
Department of General Services awarded contracts to CC-1 for which CC-1
had bid approximately $500,000.

14. The activities of the defendant and co-conspirators with respect to
the sale of food, including the sale of food to the NYCBOE, DCAS, the Newark
Public Schools, and the Nassau County Department of General Services,
pursuant to contracts that are the subject of this Count, were within the flow of,
and substantially affected, interstate trade and commerce.

III. DESCRIPTION OF THE OFFENSE

15. From approximately 1995 until approximately April 1999, the exact
dates being unknown to the United States, the defendant and co-conspirators
engaged in a combination and conspiracy in unreasonable restraint of
interstate trade and commerce in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act (Title
15, United States Code, Section 1).

16. The aforesaid combination and conspiracy consisted of a
continuing agreement, understanding, and concert of action among the
defendant and co-conspirators, the substantial terms of which were to rig bids
and allocate contracts for the supply of food, primarily fresh fruit and
vegetables, to a number of government entities, including the NYCBOE, DCAS,
the Newark Public Schools, and the Nassau County Department of General
Services.

17. For the purpose of forming and effectuating the aforesaid
combination and conspiracy, the defendant and co-conspirators did those
things which they combined and conspired to do, including, among other
things:

(a) Prior to the submission of bids on particular contracts to supply
produce to the NYCBOE, Beberman participated in meetings and conversations
in which he and Lempert discussed and agreed that Beberman would cause
CC-1 to submit intentionally high, noncompetitive bids, or not to bid, for parts of
those contracts;

(b) Lempert paid Beberman approximately $125,000 in cash, in
exchange for Beberman causing CC-1 to submit intentionally high,
noncompetitive bids, or not to bid, on particular contracts to supply produce to
the NYCBOE. Beberman gave approximately $25,000 of this cash to another co-conspirator,
who was also affiliated with CC-1;

(c) Prior to the submission of bids, Beberman and Lempert discussed
and agreed how to divide upcoming bids to supply food to DCAS, and
Beberman, with the approval of a senior executive officer of CC-1, then caused
CC-1 to bid in accordance with their agreement. In addition, at Lempert's
request, Beberman gave Lempert money to be distributed among other co-conspirators who were
potential competitors for the contracts awarded by
DCAS, to induce those competitors not to bid competitively on those contracts.
Beberman obtained the cash he gave to Lempert from a senior executive
officer of CC-1;

(d) Prior to the submission of bids, Beberman and Lempert discussed
and agreed how to divide upcoming bids to supply food to the Newark Public
Schools. Beberman then caused CC-1 to bid in accordance with their
agreement; and

(e) Prior to the submission of bids, Beberman and Lempert discussed
and agreed how to divide upcoming bids to supply food to the Nassau County
Department of General Services. Beberman then caused CC-1 to bid in
accordance with their agreement.

IV. JURISDICTION AND VENUE

18. The aforesaid combination and conspiracy was formed and carried
out, in part, within the Southern District of New York within the five years
preceding the filing of this Information.

IN VIOLATION OF TITLE 15, UNITED STATES CODE, SECTION 1

COUNT TWO -- INCOME TAX EVASION
(26 U.S.C. § 7201)

The United States of America further charges:

19. Michael Beberman ("Beberman") is hereby made a defendant on
the charge stated below.

20. Since May 1995, Beberman, a resident of Queens, New York until
November 1997, and then of Melville, New York, has been employed as a
salesperson by a company that sold food and related items.

21. From approximately May 1997 until approximately September 1998,
Beberman received and kept for himself cash payments totaling approximately
$100,000 in exchange for his assistance in causing his employer to submit
intentionally high, noncompetitive bids to the Board of Education of the City of
New York ("NYCBOE"). Beberman received some of the payments in the Bronx,
New York.

22. On or about April 15, 1998, and April 15, 1999, in the Eastern District
of New York and elsewhere, Beberman did unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly
attempt to evade and defeat a large part of the income tax due and owing by
him and his spouse to the United States of America for each of the tax years
1997 and 1998, by filing and causing to be filed with the Internal Revenue
Service Center, false and fraudulent U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns, Forms
1040, wherein he and his spouse failed to report as income a total of
approximately $100,000 in cash that he had received as payment for his role in a
conspiracy to rig bids to the NYCBOE; whereas, as he then and there well knew
and believed, their true taxable income for those tax years was substantially in
excess of the specific sums reported, upon which additional taxable income there was owing to
the United States of
America substantial additional income tax.